Hegseth Berates Media as Questions Linger on Iran Strike Impact
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used a press briefing Thursday to berate the media over reports that questioned the effectiveness of strikes on Iran's nuclear program, without offering new information.
Hegseth took aim at reports about a preliminary assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency that said core components of Iran's uranium enrichment program at the underground Fordow facility were still intact. President Donald Trump has said the facility was 'obliterated.'
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US Supreme Court poised to rule in challenge to Texas age-check for online porn
By Andrew Chung WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on Friday in a challenge on free speech grounds to a Texas law that requires pornographic websites to verify the age of users in a case testing the legality of state efforts to keep minors from viewing such material online. A trade group representing adult entertainment performers and companies appealed a lower court's decision allowing the Republican-led state's age-verification mandate, finding that it likely did not violate the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment safeguard against government abridgment of speech. The Texas measure is one of 24 similar ones enacted around the United States, primarily in Republican-governed states, with some set to take effect in the months ahead, according to the Free Speech Coalition, which challenged the law. The law requires websites whose content is more than a third "sexual material harmful to minors" to have all users submit personally identifying information verifying they are at least age 18 to gain access. The case tested the limits of state powers to protect minors from explicit materials deemed by policymakers to be harmful to them with measures that burden the access of adults to constitutionally protected expression. Supreme Court precedents have protected access by adults to non-obscene sexual content on First Amendment grounds, including a 2004 ruling that blocked a federal law similar to the Texas measure. If the 2004 precedent prevents Texas from enforcing its law, then it should be overruled, the state argued, noting how the digital landscape has changed dramatically in the two decades since. The coalition, a trade association of adult content performers, producers and distributors, as well as companies that run pornographic websites including and argued that online age verification unlawfully stifles the free speech rights of adults and exposes them to increasing risks of identity theft, extortion and data breaches. Some sites like Pornhub blocked access entirely in states with age-verification laws. Steps such as content-filtering software or on-device age verification would better protect minors while respecting the rights of adults, according to the challengers. During Jan. 15 arguments in the case, the justices voiced worries about the pervasiveness of pornography online and the ease with which minors are able to access it. Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the mother of school-age children, noted that minors can get online porn through cellphones, tablets, gaming systems and computers, and noted that there has been an "explosion of addiction to online porn." But some of the justices also expressed concern over the burdens imposed on adults to view constitutionally protected material, debating whether the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should have applied a stricter form of judicial review to the Texas law than the one it actually used that gave deference to legislators. U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra issued a preliminary injunction in 2023, blocking the law. The 5th Circuit ruled in 2024 that the plaintiffs were unlikely to succeed in their First Amendment challenge to the age-verification requirement, lifting Ezra's injunction on that provision. The 5th Circuit upheld Ezra's injunction against another provision requiring websites to display "health warnings" about viewing pornography. The Supreme Court last year declined to halt enforcement of the law while the case proceeded.
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As two African nations sign a peace deal, Trump wants credit. But some fear peace may still elude them
A peace agreement brokered by the White House to stem the bloodshed in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where a militia allegedly backed by Rwanda occupies vast swaths of land, will be signed in Washington D.C. on Friday by officials of the two African nations. But many remain unconvinced that the accord – portrayed as a 'wonderful treaty' by United States President Donald Trump – can end the complex and long-running conflict, while the militia itself has yet to commit to laying down its weapons. Trump was upbeat about the prospects for peace when teams from Rwanda and the DRC initialed a draft agreement on June 18, while at the same time suggesting that he would not get credit for his role in ending this or other conflicts. On June 20, he wrote on Truth Social: 'This is a Great Day for Africa and, quite frankly, a Great Day for the World! I won't get a Nobel Peace Prize for this.' He added: 'I won't get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that's all that matters to me!' Trump touts himself as a 'peacemaker' and has expanded his interest in global conflicts to the brutal war in the mineral-rich eastern DRC. His peace deal could also pave the way for America's economic interests in the region, as it eyes access to the DRC's critical minerals. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will preside over the signing of the peace agreement by DRC Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner and her Rwandan counterpart Olivier Nduhungirehe on Friday. More than 7,000 people have been killed, and some one million others displaced since January, when the M23 militia waged a fresh offensive against the Congolese army, seizing control of the two largest cities in the country's east. There has been increasing reports of summary executions – even of children – in occupied areas, where aid groups say they are also witnessing an epidemic of rape and sexual violence. The crisis in the eastern DRC, which shares a border with Rwanda and harbors large deposits of minerals critical to the production of electronics, is a fusion of complex issues. Daniel Kubelwa, a Congolese activist and researcher told CNN that the DRC's feud with Rwanda is 'deeply rooted in colonial-era border disputes, unresolved regional tensions, and the consequences of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.' In that genocide, hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu militias. Rwanda criticizes the DRC, which faces problems with militia violence, for integrating a proscribed Hutu militia group into its army to fight against the mainly Tutsi M23. M23, which first emerged in 2012, is one of the most prominent militias battling for control of the DRC's mineral wealth. The rebel group also claims to defend the interests of the Tutsis and other Congolese minorities of Rwandan origin. UN experts and much of the international community believe that Rwanda backs M23 and supports the rebels with troops, leaving the nation on the cusp of war with the DRC over this alleged territorial violation. The Rwandan government has not acknowledged this claim but insists it protects itself against the Hutu militia operating in the DRC, which it describes as an 'existential security threat to Rwanda.' M23 occupies strategic mining towns in the DRC's eastern provinces of North and South Kivu. In a report in December, the UN Group of Experts on the DRC said they found evidence that minerals 'were fraudulently exported to Rwanda' from the DRC 'and mixed with Rwandan production.' Rwandan President Paul Kagame drew outrage last year when he admitted in a public address that Rwanda was a transit point for minerals smuggled from the DRC but insisted his country was not stealing from its neighbor. Washington's peace accord contains provisions on 'respect for territorial integrity and a prohibition of hostilities,' including 'disengagement, disarmament, and conditional integration of non-state armed groups,' according to a joint statement issued by the US, Rwanda and the DRC on June 18. Other points include 'facilitation of the return of refugees and internally displaced persons, as well as humanitarian access' and the establishment of a 'regional economic integration framework' that could attract significant US investments into Rwanda and the DRC. However, the rebel coalition Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), of which M23 is a key member, told CNN it did not participate in the US-brokered peace process between the Rwandan and Congolese governments, but was instead committed to a separate negotiation process mediated by Qatar in its capital Doha. Asked whether AFC would surrender its arms, Victor Tesongo, a spokesperson for the coalition, said it was 'not there yet' and that it was waiting on developments in Doha. He did not confirm whether airports in the eastern DRC that had been shut by the rebels would reopen for aid supply. Previous truce agreements have failed to bring lasting peace between M23 and the Congolese armed forces. In April, the rebels jointly declared a truce after meeting with representatives of the DRC during negotiations led by Qatar. Fighting flared up days after. Qatar has been facilitating talks after Angolan President João Lourenço quit his mediation role following months of inability to broker peace. Activist Kubelwa told CNN that while the US and Qatar-led peace efforts were commendable, 'any deal that doesn't address the root causes (of the conflict) will only serve as a temporary truce.' One of those root causes, he said, was the 'unfair distribution' of the DRC's mineral wealth, which he claimed, 'benefits a small elite and foreign powers, while ordinary Congolese, especially in the east, suffer displacement and misery.' The DRC is roughly the size of western Europe and is home to more than 100 million people. The Central African nation is also endowed with the world's largest reserves of cobalt – used to produce batteries that power cell phones and electric vehicles – and coltan, which is refined into tantalum and has a variety of applications in phones and other devices. However, according to the World Bank, 'most people in DRC have not benefited from this wealth,' and the country ranks among the five poorest nations in the world. Kubelwa said another trigger for the conflict in the DRC was the country's 'weak institutions' and 'suppression of dissent.' Ahead of signing the US-brokered peace deal, Nduhungirehe, the Rwandan foreign minister, told CNN that his nation was 'committed to supporting the ongoing negotiations,' but warned that ending the conflict 'will depend on the political will and good faith in Kinshasa,' referring to the DRC's government. The DRC foreign minister's office said it would comment on the deal after the document is signed. Congolese human rights activist and Nobel laureate Denis Mukwege has described the deal as 'vague' and tilted in Rwanda's favor. After details of the draft agreement were announced last week, he posted a statement on X criticizing it for failing to recognize 'Rwanda's aggression against the DRC,' which he wrote, 'suggests it (the peace accord) benefits the unsanctioned aggressor, who will thus see its past and present crimes whitewashed as 'economic cooperation.'' He added: 'In its current state, the emerging agreement would amount to granting a reward for aggression, legitimizing the plundering of Congolese natural resources, and forcing the victim to alienate their national heritage by sacrificing justice in order to ensure a precarious and fragile peace.' Congolese political and economic analyst Dady Saleh told CNN he 'remains skeptical' about the ability of the US peace treaty to ensure a path to peace. For Kubelwa, 'a true and lasting solution must go beyond ceasefires and formal agreements. It must include genuine accountability, regional truth-telling, redistribution of national wealth, reform of governance, and a broad national dialogue that includes all Congolese voices not just elites or foreign allies.' 'Without this, peace remains a fragile illusion,' he said.
